YEREVAN, March 1, / ARKA /. Private remittances sent to Armenia through the banks for non-commercial purposes in January 2016 slashed by 13.7% from January 2015 to about $46.8 million, the Central Bank said. According to the regulator, when compared with 2015 December the remittances were down by 57.9%.

The amount of remittances sent from Armenia abroad in 2016 January fell to about $17.42 million from $17.44 million in January 2015. If compared to 2015 December the remittances form Armenia plummeted by 45.46%.

The net inflow of remittances in 2016 January thus decreased to $29.3 million from $36.8 million in January 2015. As opposed to 2015 December the drop amounted to 63%. The bulk of private remittances sent to Armenia - about 63.7% of the total volume- came as usual from Russia.

Their amount fell by 19.8% in comparison with January 2015 to approximately $29.8 million. The drop as opposed to 2015 December was 61.8%, while the remittances to the Russian Federation decreased by 9.9% to $12.5 million.

Remittances to Armenia in 2015 decreased by 30% to $1.2 billion. The dramatic drop was blamed on the huge depreciation of the Russian ruble and economic decline there. ($ 1 - 491.34 drams) - 0-